Photo/Illutration An issue of Captain Tsubasa Magazine published on Jan. 5. Its publisher has announced that the popular manga series will end in April. (Provided by Shueisha Inc. © Yoichi Takahashi / Shueisha Inc.)

“Captain Tsubasa,” a globally beloved soccer manga series, will end its 40-year run in April, publisher Shueisha Inc. announced on Jan. 5.

In a statement, Yoichi Takahashi, 63, the manga artist, cited changes in the creative environment due to the digitization process, as well as his declining health. 

“Rather than continue drawing ‘manga’ to the limits of my physical strength, I have decided to stop the serialization so that I can tell the ‘story' of 'Captain Tsubasa' to the end,” he said.

Takahashi said he will continue to work on the story in other forms such as creating storyboards.

"Captain Tsubasa" is a manga series about a young soccer prodigy, Tsubasa Ozora. The serialization started in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1981.

It is known for inspiring many famed soccer players in Japan and abroad to pursue the sport as a career. 

The comic series has sold more than 90 million copies worldwide.

Currently, “Captain Tsubasa Rising Sun,” a series in which Tsubasa aims for the Olympic gold medal as a member of the U-23 Japan team, is being published in Captain Tsubasa Magazine.

The publisher said the series will conclude with the issue scheduled to be released in early April.

The publisher said it will clarify how future stories will be presented as soon as it is decided.

Takahashi said in the statement that he has plans for stories after the Rising Sun series and even for the final episode.

But he said as it might take 40 years or more to cartoonize everything, doing it in the manga series is not realistic.

He disclosed that his writing pace has slowed in recent years, and that the 2022 passing of his idol, Shinji Mizushima, a manga artist known for his long-running baseball series including "Dokaben" and "Abu-san," influenced his decision.

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